I woke early on 14th February, and the pension gave me a good breakfast. After saying goodbye to the Chilean family who I’d met the day before, I checked out and by 8:30 was walking down the road to the west, waving my thumb at the rather infrequent passing vehicles. After walking for a km, a little Suzuki 4×4 stopped and took me to a small village that was within walking distance of the ferry, where I waited for the next departure. It was another beautiful morning, and the rural tranquillity of the location was delightful.
Reaching the main island of Chiloé again I got a ride in the back of a blue pickup truck that had been on the ferry. I was soon back in Chonchi where I relaxed over a coffee and read my guidebook. I was sorry to have to leave the beautiful island of Chiloé but my flight south to Punta Arenas was next morning. I headed to the terminal and bought a ticket back to Ancud in the north of the island and then Puerto Montt. While waiting for the bus I ran into a British backpacker who I had last seen in San Pedro de Atacames.
On the car ferry to the mainland, I was treated to the sight of dolphins leaping out of the water near the ferry – apparently they were following us just for fun. By mid-afternoon I was back in Puerto Montt where I sent the latest batch of postcards and letters from the post office, and checked in to Raul’s hostel once more. I went to a phone office to try to call my sister in Bedfordshire, but there was no answer, so I went searching for more information about my next destination – Punta Arenas. It looked so far south that I wasn’t sure what to expect – since there’s an airport I assumed there’d be more than just a few wind-battered huts, penguins and icebergs, but I wanted to make sure…
Back at Raul’s hostel I got talking to Abigail, a backpacker from the UK, and she joined me for a meal, and then for a beer with some other travellers. Actually it was several beers – we didn’t get back to the hostel until after midnight.
The morning of 15th February was quite foggy – the weather as well as my head… I was up at 7:30 for breakfast where I ran into Dave, the Australian from San Pedro and later Santiago, and had a brief chat. Then I was off to get the bus to the airport – there was some doubt whether the incoming plane would be able to land due to the fog, but after a slight delay a 737 thumped down and taxied up to the terminal. I had managed to get a window seat on the right, which meant I was in the right place to see some of the dramatic scenery of southern Chile through a few gaps in the clouds. At one point there was a commotion on the left and I was able to move over to that side with my camera where there was a view of the famous spikey summits of Torres del Paine and shortly after that, on the right, a glacier calving icebergs into a lake.
Arriving in Punta Arenas I noticed it was a lot cooler, and the wind was brisk. A bus took me the few km into the centre of town, which certainly had a different feel about it than the area of Chile I had just come from. Everything had a rather “hardy” look about it – the buildings, the vehicles, the people… The tourist information office gave me lots of information about crossing to Tierra del Fuego, and also about visiting Torres del Paine. It’s hard to know which to do first. I’m now 3 hours south of Puerto Natales from where I could go to Torres del Paine as a day trip. But to then go to Tierra del Fuego afterwards would mean backtracking, so I’m wondering about going south first then going north at the eastern end of the Magellan Strait to Argentina and then cross over west from Argentina to Puerto Natales via a place called Rio Turbio – this sounds like it’s feasible from what the tourist information said.
I found a nice hostal in a large wooden house, where I met some interesting people. I got talking to a friendly Dutchman who had been to Antarctica by arranging (well in advance) to go as one of a few paying passengers in a Chilean government ship. Before the sun set, I went for a walk uphill to get a view of the town – Punta Arenas is on a gentle hillside that dips to the seafront, and from higher up you can see out over the Straits of Magellan. I stood there for a bit not quite believing that I was so far away from home – looking across that actual Straits of Magellan to actual Tierra del Fuego…
After getting a bite to eat in the town centre, I went back and sat in the hostel listening to a group from New Zealand sharing their stories of Antarctica with the Dutchman, up until midnight. I just listened – it was fascinating. One day I will get to Antarctica – not this time, but one day…
que loco me resulta imaginarte por estos lugares tan lejanos para vos y 30 años atrás…y tan conocidos y “pateados”( o caminados ) por nosotros años después.
Aw, I know that feeling all so well. It sounds like it was an internal thought, but I remember being in Berlin when a fellow runner looked at me and said, ‘You are so very far from home!’ Hehe! I was, but at the same time, it felt okay and ‘at home.’ It sounds like you had some of the same thoughts looking at the landscapes here. 🙂